By Derek Prince
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Be encouraged and inspired with this Bible-based sermon by Derek Prince.
Be encouraged and inspired with this Bible-based sermon by Derek Prince.
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Tape No. I-4324Page
The theme of this teaching session is āThe New Creation.ā This is one of the great themes of the New Testament and itās one that many Christians donāt fully understand. And consequently, they donāt appropriate all that God has made available to them. So my purpose will be to teach you about the new creation in Christ. Weāll begin with 2Corinthians 5:17 and the first part of verse 18.
āTherefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself...ā
Iāll not read any further there. Paul makes a very specific statement that applies to every person. If anyone is in Christ, the translation says, he is a new creation. But the words āhe isā are supplied by the translators. The way Paul says it is more dramatic. If anyone is in Christ, a new creation. And you should have an exclamation mark there. Thereās something exciting. If anyone is in Christ, a new creation!
And then he says a little further on, behold. Thatās another word that introduces something exciting and dramatic. So, this is an exciting statement. Itās not just dry theology, itās an exciting and wonderful revelation of what God wants to do for each of us.
Paul says if anyone is in Christ, and that really leaves only two possibilities for every person. Either you are in Christ or you are not in Christ. If you are in Christ then a new creation has taken place inside you. In Galatians 6:15 Paul returns to this theme and he says something very far reaching. Galatians 6:15:
āFor in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.ā
As I understand it, heās saying the only thing that really matters in Christ is a new creation. Religious ceremonies wonāt do it. Whether youāre circumcised or not circumcised, baptized or not baptized, thatās not the important question. The important question is have you become a new creation in Jesus Christ? Thatās the only thing that ultimately matters. Itās not important whether weāre Anglicans or Baptists or Presbyterians or Pentecostals. What matters is are you a new creation? Thatās the question, thatās the issue.
Creation is something that only God can do. Wherever we find the word create, if itās properly used, it describes something that God has done. Man can manufacture, man can repair, man can improve, but only God can create. And the results of sin in our lives are such that it cannot be repaired, cannot be improved. Thereās only one thing that will accomplish whatās neededāa creative act of God. In Psalm 51:10, a great psalm of penitence which David prayed after his sin had been revealed with Bathsheba and it had been exposed that he was guilty both of adultery and murder. He cries out to God in repentance and in agony of soul and he says:
āCreate in me a clean heart, O God...ā
He came face to the fact that nothing he could do would meet the need of the situation. He could improve himself, he could adjust himself, he could turn over a new leaf but that was not sufficient. It had to be a creative act of God. And that is true of every one of us. Where sin has done its damage in our lives being improved or repaired or adjusted does not meet the need. We are totally dependent upon the mercy of God for a creative act which He does when we are in Christ. When we come to God through Jesus Christ, on the basis of His sacrifice on the cross and open ourselves to God and say, āThereās nothing I can do for myself, Iām totally dependent on what you can do for meā, then in His faithfulness and in His mercy God moves in and brings about the new creation.
The fact that Paul speaks about a new creation indicates that there has been already a previous creation. And this previous creation which made the human race in the first place is described in the book of Genesis 2:7. And if we look at the description of the first creation weāll see that in many ways it wonderfully parallels the new creation in Christ. In fact, you cannot fully understand the new creation until you have understood the first creation. So weāll turn now to Genesis 2:7. What impresses me about the Bible is that it can say so much in so few words. Before I became a preacher I was a professional philosopher. And basically, philosophers use very long words to explain very complicated things which canāt really be understood. When I met Jesus Christ and became a new creation in Christ, very dramatically one night in an army barrack room in the British Army in World War II, when I turned to the Bible what impressed me and blessed me was that God could say such marvelous things in such short, clear, simple words. And ever since then itās been my aim to speak simply. I havenāt always achieved it but Iāve always aimed at it. In fact, Iāve come to this conclusion concerning myself. If I canāt say it simply the reason is I donāt understand it clearly. So I work at it. This present lady thatās with me is my second wife, my first wife is with the Lord. Both of them for years have sat on the front row and listened to my preaching. I always admire them because theyāve had to listen to me so many times struggling through to get to the place of simplicity. But I work at it until I can say it simply.
So letās turn to Genesis 2:7 which is really a very exciting verse, a very vivid verse.
āAnd the Lord God formed [or molded] man [or Adam]...ā
You need to know that man and Adam are the same word in Hebrew. In other words, itās a name as well as a race.
āThe Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.ā
The previous verse says that at that time it didnāt rain but a mist went up from the ground and watered the earth. So, the dust out of which the Lord God formed man was moistened dust, it was clay. Now, I just believe it happened the way that itās described. You may not find it easy to believe that, you have to make your own decision. But I personally believe the Bible tells it exactly like it is. And when it says the Lord God, other passages of scriptureāparticularly the gospel of Johnātell us that it was not God the Father but God the eternal Son who was manifested in human history as Jesus of Nazareth. Because, Johnās gospel tells us by Him [Jesus] all things were made and without Him was not anything made that was made. We speak of God as revealed in the Bible as three personsāFather, Son and Spirit. So if I speak about the first person, thatās the Father; the second person is the Son; the third person is the Spirit. One God, three persons.
Itās very interesting, the first verse of the Bible contains the mystery of God. It says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This doesnāt come out in the English translation, probably not in any translation. But the Hebrew word for God is plural in form. In fact, it is Elohim. And imis the plural ending like we would add s at the end of a word in English. So, the first time God is mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 1:1 itās plural in form. But then the verb created is singular. In Hebrew verbs can be plural or singular. So we have the mystery of unity and plurality in the Godhead all in the first verse of the Bible. And when we come to the 2nd chapter of Genesis, mostly it speaks about the Lord God. That would be Jehovah Elohim. And I believe in this case itās referring to the second person of the Godhead, the Son of God, the eternal Son revealed in human history many, many centuries later as Jesus of Nazareth.
And so, the way I picture it is thisāand you be patient with me and if you canāt see it this way donāt get upset with me. I picture this divine, glorious, holy person, the Son of God, the Lord God, and there in that perfect setting in the garden that had not yet been marred by sin He kneels down and He takes clay and He molds a perfect figure of a man. One of the interesting things about the revelation of God in the Bible is every time He deals with man He has to stoop. So to create man He stooped, He kneeled. And, He formed this perfect body of clay. No human sculptor has ever formed any body as perfect as that, not even Michelangelo. But it was just clay, it was lifeless. And then He stooped lower still and He put His divine lips against the lips of clay and His divine nostrils against the nostrils of clay. And it says He breathed into him the breath of life.
Now, I didnāt intend to get involved so much in Hebrew but itās interesting and I believe I can help you to understand. Hebrew is one of those languagesāI donāt know anything about Chinese. If I did, Iād use those examples. But Hebrew is one of those languages where the sound of a word depicts the thing thatās described. Can you understand? For instance, an earthquake is ra-a-ash. Thunder is ra-a-am. Can you hear the thunder in that? The sound of a bell is silsel. And many other languages, English has it to a certain extent. Tinkle is the same. But the word for breathe, this is what Iām going to come to, is a word thatās got a P sound and then itās got a sound that we donāt have in English. In Hebrew itās called het. Itās a sound made in the throat, itās an outgoing guttural breath. I would guess maybe you have it in Chinese, I donāt know. Lots of languages have it but the English donāt. Now, the Scottish people do, you see. They say loch which English people say lock. See? Itās quite different.
Anyhow, this soundāand I have to be careful here because of the sound systemāthis is the word. Viapach. Can you hear that? First of all, thereās the explosion of the P sound and then thereās the long outgoing breath of the hetsound. Viapach. And what I want to emphasize is God put all of Himself into that breath. He breathed Himself into that man. All the energy of God was released in that breath. And the Spirit of life from God entered that clay body and the most wonderful transformation took place. The clay body became a living human being. Even if we donāt talk about the inner part of man, just the outer change, he had eyes that could see, nostrils that could smell, a heart that beat. Doctors tell us that in one human eye there are more than three million working parts. What created a human eye? I could never believe that such a thing would happen by accident. That seems to me totally incredible. Even when I was a philosopher I couldnāt believe that. Think about that. The very Spirit of God Himself breathed in, transformed clay into a living body. None of us can understand all the complexities of a human body. The more doctors learn the more complicated becomes.
What was the source of all that, where did it begin? It began with the Spirit of God breathed into the clay. Thatās how we came about. You see, as a philosopher I studied all sorts of theories about the origin of man and the origin of the universe. But none of them really made sense. When I met the Lord and then began to read the Bible, the Bible explained me to myself. It made sense. And itās gone on doing that for nearly 50 years now.
So, just think about that. Whatās the real source of your body? Itās the Spirit of God, the creative Spirit of God. See, that makes divine healing very logical because when your watch goes wrong you donāt take it to the bootmaker. To whom do you take it? To the watchmaker. When your body goes wrong where do you go with it? Why not go to the body maker? Heās the one. I mean, I thank God for doctors, Iām not in any sense saying we donāt need doctors. But the ultimate one who has the real power over every area of your body is the one who created you. I would say, if youāre a Christian, go to the doctor but never stop short at the doctor. Trust the doctor to be the instrument of God Himself. Or maybe, in many cases you just pray and youāre instantly healed or youāre gradually healed. But what I want to say is if this is a correct account of manās creation, then going to God for the healing of your body is not fanaticism, itās logic. See, I was a professional logician. One of the things thatās blessed me about the Bible is itās the most logical book in the world. Never feel you need to apologize to anybody for believing the Bible. I would say its logic is perfect.
So here we have man created. In 1Thessalonians 5:23, speaking about total man, Paul says:
āNow may the God of peace Himself sanctify us completely [or make us completely holy, and then he explains]; and my our whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless...ā
So total man consists of three elementsāspirit, soul and body. If you go back to the act of creation, the inbreathed Spirit came from God, came from above. The body of clay came from beneath. And the union of Spirit and body produced a living soul. The soul is the individual. The soul is the thing in you that says I, I want, I like, I feel, I think, I believe, I choose. Thatās the soul. Thatās why every soul settles its own destiny because itās the soul that has the responsibility to make the choice. So, a man is spirit from above, soul and body from beneath.
And you see, this explains a lot, in a way, in our experience because thereās something in us that wants to go upward but thereās something in us that pulls us downwards. Youāve experienced that, every one of you, at some time in your life. The philosopher Plato described it this way. Itās just a picture, he said the chariot of the soul has two horses. One is white, one is black. The white one always wants to go up, the black one always wants to go down. So in a sense, we can understand the conflict that every one of us experiences at some time. Itās a conflict between that which is from above and that which is from below. And that explains us to ourselves.
It also says in the story of the creation God made man in His own likeness. And the Bible, as Iāve already said, reveals a triune God, three in oneāFather, Son, Spirit. It also reveals a triune manāspirit, soul, body. So we have a triune man created in the likeness of a triune God.
Unfortunately, man disobeyed God. He turned away from God in disobedience and rebellion. The one single word the Bible uses to describe that is sin. Another very interesting thing about the Bible is that itās really the only source of the revelation of human problems. Outside of the Bible there is no real grasp of the nature of sin. The Bible not only reveals the problem, thank God it reveals the solution. But outside of the Bible there is no real getting to the root of human problems. The root of human problems is all have sinned.
And the only remedy for sin is that which the Bible prescribes. It diagnoses the problem, it prescribes the cure. But man turned away from God in disobedience. His soul made the wrong decision. He went in the wrong direction. And the result was it affected every part of his being, his spirit, his soul and his body.
Let me say just a simple thing to think of. The spirit is from above. The spirit is God conscious. Itās the part of us that can relate directly to God. The soul is self conscious. The soul is what uses the word I. I am, I feel, I want, I hurt. Help me, look at me, Iām important. The body is world conscious. Through the five senses the body relates to the world around us.
Now, when man sinned each part of him was affectedāthe spirit, the soul and the body. The result in manās spirit was that it was cut off from relationship to God and it became dead. When we are in sin we are spiritually dead to God. We look for a moment in Genesis 2:17 the Lord warned man if he disobeyed and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would die. Itās here in Genesis 2:17, God is speaking:
āBut of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.ā
Notice God says in the day you eat of it you will die. Adam did not die physically for something like 900 years but he died spiritually. He was cut off from the life of God.
In the epistle to the Ephesians Paul describes this. Ephesians 2:1. Itās only part of a sentence but itās all we need to read:
āAnd you God made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins...ā
Not physically dead but spiritually dead. Cut off from God by our trespasses, our acts of disobedience, and our sin. Ephesians 2:1.
And then in Ephesians 4:17 and following, Paul describes the situation of those who are dead in sin. And that description applies to every one of us here. At some time or another all of us were in this condition. Ephesians 4:17:
āThis I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk [or the rest of the nations], in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God [cut off from the life of God], because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to licentiousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.ā
Thatās a terrible description but itās true of every person outside of Christ. By our trespasses and our sins weāve been cut off from the life of God, we are in ignorance, weāre in darkness, we donāt know the root of our own problems, we donāt know the way out of our darkness. And, we have lost the ability to feel. Youāre looking at somebody right now who can say of himself that exactly describes me. For the first 24 years of my life thatās how I lived. Let me sayāI hope it will not be misunderstoodāI was a good Anglican. I had been through all the ceremonies of the Anglican Church. And this is no criticism of the Anglican Church but those ceremonies could not bring about the new creation. Understand what I was saying before? Itās not a ceremony, itās a creative act of God we need. Nothing less will do. If the ceremony becomes the channel of Godās creative act, thatās wonderful. But in my case it didnāt.
So thatās the condition of the spirit. Cut off from God, alienated, past feeling, dead.
The soul, the result in the soul I would say is rebellion. Every one of us has in us a rebel. You may or may not have come to grips with the problem but heās there. Thereās a rebel that goes his own way, wants to do his own thing and is very, very self-centered. If we go back to Ephesians 2 we just see a description of the rebellious soul. Weāre just going on from where we left off, Ephesians 21 spoke about being dead in the spirit. Now it says about the soul, verses 2 and 3:
ā...in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.ā
Who is the prince of the power of the air? Satan, thatās right. And Satan has authority over all who are in rebellion against God. In the book of Job, chapter 41, thereās the complete chapter thatās devoted to a picture of a sea monster called Leviathan, which is another picture of Satan. And the last verse of that chapter says he is king over all the children of pride. So when we are proud, rebellious, self-assertive, going our own way, we are under the dominion of Satan. Heās the spirit who is now working in all the sons of disobedience and all those whose souls are in rebellion against God.
And then Paul continues in the next verse:
āAmong whom also we all once conducted ourselves...ā
We all includes the apostle Paul, all the apostles, all preachers, all pastors, all evangelists, all people. We all were once in this condition until the new creation.
āAmong whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desire of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.ā
There are no exceptions. We were all like that in our ignorance, in our darkness, in our rebellion, going our own way, doing our own things. And most of us quite unaware of our real condition. I know for my own part for at least 10 years before I met the Lord I was looking desperately for something to satisfy because I wasnāt satisfied. Academically I was very successful. If you know anything about the British education system, I was a scholar of Eton, scholar of Kingās College, Cambridge. At the age of 24 I was elected into a fellowship in Kingās College, Cambridge. Academically I had reached the top. But inside I was dissatisfied. I knew there must be something more and I didnāt know where it was. I didnāt know what it was, I didnāt know how to find it. And although I was so privileged in my intellectual associations, I really didnāt have anybody around me to tell me. There was nobody who could tell me what I was looking for. I looked everywhere. I was highbrow, I went to the ballet and to the opera. I was lowbrow, I went to the nightclubs and all sorts of other places I wonāt describe. I tried everything, I had no scruples. I made up my mind either you believe all the Ten Commandments or you didnāt believe any of them. And I decided they were not for me. And the longer I searched and the more I looked the more dissatisfied I became. I did not know, I was in darkness. I was groping. I was cut off.
And then the Lord Jesus revealed Himself to me very definitely, very personally. And immediately I knew thatās what Iād been looking for all my life. And there are uncounted millions like that in the world today. Itās our responsibility as Christians at least to be able to tell them how to find what theyāre looking for. If they donāt want it then thatās their problem. But itās our responsibility to be able to say this is what youāve been looking for all your life and this is how you find it.
Now, the third area of man, the body, was also affected by sin and you can describe the results in the human body in one single word which is corrupt or corruptible. The body became subject to decay, to getting old, to wrinkles, to stiff joints, to baldness, to sickness. And ultimately whatās the end of all that? Whatās the end? Death, thatās right. If we look at just one sentence in Ephesians 4:22, and we need to return to this verse later. Paul says:
āPut off concerning your former conduct the old man, which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts...ā
So every one of us lives in a corruptible body. Lots of people fight this. They try to act as if it werenāt true. Theyāll dress up, theyāll do all sorts of things to conceal from themselves the fact that their body is decaying. But they canāt change the fact.
So to sum it up, the result of sin in total human personality is this way. The spirit becomes dead, cut off from the source of its life which is God. The soul becomes a rebel. The body becomes subject to decay or corruption. That can only be changed in one way, by the new creation.
Now weāve looked at the old creation, it will make much more sense if we look at the new creation. There is one particular passage in the New Testament which describes the new creation and how it took place. Itās in John 20:19ā22. This is the description of the evening of Resurrection Sunday. It describes the first appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples after He had risen from the dead. This is what it says:
āThen the same day at evening, being the first day of the week [thatās what we call Sunday], when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be with you. And when He had said this He showed them His hands and His side.ā
Why did he do that? He wanted to convince them that they were looking at the same body that they had seen pierced and nailed to the tree. So He showed them the evidence of the crucifixion in His body so that they would know for sure this was not somebody different, this was the same person they had seen die on the cross.
Then it says:
āThen the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Then Jesus said to them again, Peace to you; as the Father has sent me, I also send you.ā
He commissioned them to be His messengers to go out into the world. And then He did something.
āAnd when He had said this He breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.ā
Now I want you to think back to the first creation, the very same person, the second person of the Godhead had knelt beside that body of clay and breathed into it the breath of life and man became alive. Now here He is the same person. He has been through death and hell and the grave. Heās come out totally victorious and He stands in front of His disciples and He breathes into them and says receive the Holy Spirit. Can you see the parallel between the first creation and the new creation? The word thatās used in Greek for āto breathe intoā is used in secular Greek for a flute player breathing into the mouth of his flute. Now I cannot prove this, everybody is free to make their own decision. But it seems to me that Jesus did not just stand and breathe at them but that He went up to each of them and breathed into them. He put His lips against their lips and breathed in and said receive holy breath. The same Greek word means spirit and breath. And when that happened they were born again. A new creation took place.
But we need to appreciate the fullness of what took place. In the garden in the first creation He breathed into them divine life. But in the upper room on Resurrection Sunday He breathed into them a life that had conquered sin, death, hell, the grave and Satan. A totally victorious life. A life that could not be defeated, a life that could not be destroyed, a life that nothing Satan could do could ever affect. And that is the new creation. Thatās what we receive when we meet Jesus.
I am aware that Jesus does not walk into the room every time in visible form and breathe into us. But I am convinced that every person who is truly born again must have a personal face to face confrontation with Jesus. Not visibly. I know this happened to me. I didnāt understand salvation, I didnāt know anything about being born again. I just decided to pray one night because I had come to a place of desperation. I just did not understand. It was about 11:00 oāclock at night in an army barrack room, I was the only person awake. For about one hour I couldnāt pray. I just didnāt now what to pray. I didnāt know whom I was praying to, I didnāt know what to say. And then I was aware that there was a person there, I never saw Him. But His presence caused a tremendous spiritual power to come over me and I was cast on the floor. For the next hour the Spirit of God flowed into me and through me and out of me. I didnāt pray a prayer of salvation, I didnāt understand how to be saved but I met Jesus. And the next day I was a totally different person. It took me months to discover all the changes that had taken place in me in that one night. And those changes have lasted for almost 50 years. So thatās not a temporary emotional experience.
I didnāt know to say I was born again, I had to learn the religious language. But I had an encounter with Jesus. I want to say this right. You can join the church and not be changed. Iām afraid some churches are full of people who have joined and never been changed. But, you cannot meet Jesus and stay the same. Salvation is not just saying a prayer or signing a card. Salvation is a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesnāt have to be dramatic, it can be very quiet, it can be very simple. It can take place at the altar of a church, it can take place in any kind of setting. God is no respecter of settings or places. But there has to be that real vital change. There has to be that new life that is greater than anything that can ever come against us.
I was saved in the British Army. And the British Army is not a very godly set of people, to say the least. I thought now Iām a Christian, God will take me out of the army. He didnāt, He left me there another five years. He showed me that I could be a Christian in the army. The same men who had seen me living a very sinful life saw me leading a totally different life. I wasnāt responsible for the change, I could not have brought the change about. Only Jesus could do that. But I was willing, I came to the end of my own struggles trying to reason it out and work it out, solve lifeās problems. And when I came to the end of myself and met Him the change took place. If any man is in Christ, a new creation, exclamation mark. Behold, old things have passed away, all things have become new, and all things are from God. The new creation is not a patched up job, itās not God doing a little repair here and there. Itās a totally new beginning and it has only one source. That source is God Himself.
Letās look briefly at the changes that take place in human personality as a result of the new creation, the new birth, salvation. First of all, the spirit is made alive. Colossians 2:13. Paul is writing to Christians and says:
āYou being dead in your trespass and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God has made alive...ā
Alive in the Spirit. The spirit is reunited with God the source of its life. New life comes into the spirit. It was separated by sin, now itās reunited.
The soul is reconciled. The rebel finds peace. That word is used in the passage from 2Corinthians 5 that we looked at. 2Corinthians 5, and Iāll read these words again.
āTherefore, if anyone is in Christ, a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.ā
Notice not some things, itās all things. Itās not partly a new beginning, itās a totally new beginning. The old is corrupt, God doesnāt mess around with it. He starts something new.
And then it says:
āNow all things are of God...ā
The whole of the new creation is from God. And then it says:
ā...who has reconciled us to Himself.ā
So that rebel in you and me through the new creation is reconciled to God. Now no longer do we go our own way, set our own standards, please ourselves, live our own life. Now weāre living to please the Lord. We may make many mistakes, we may have to fall and be picked up many times but our motivation is to please the Lord, not to go our own way, not to do our own thing.
And then the body receives divine life within from the Holy Spirit. See, the Spirit of God is the source of physical life. Itās very important to remember that. Romans 8:11, Paul says:
āBut if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.ā
So when we are reconciled with Christ, when we receive the Holy Spirit our bodies become temples of the Spirit of God. Then that Spirit dwelling in us imparts the life of God. Itās still a mortal body, itās still going to die, but thereās something in it that is more powerful than sickness and sin and all the forces that come against us. See? God has a specific life span for every one of us. Itās Godās purpose that we live out our full life span. God promised Israel in Exodus 23, āI will give you a full life span.ā The source of that life span is the Holy Spirit. But we have to learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, we have to learn how to yield to the Holy Spirit. I am persuaded many Christians die before their time because we havenāt all learned how to yield to the Holy Spirit, how to let Him control our physical bodies.
Those are the three changes. The spirit is made alive, the soul is reconciled, and the body receives divine life through the Holy Spirit.
I would say, going back to the experience of the apostles in the upper room, they passed from what I call Old Testament salvation to New Testament salvation. Romans 10:9, Paul tells us what we must do to enter New Testament salvation.
āIf you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.ā
So what are the two simple requirements? To confess Jesus as Lord, to believe that God has raised Him from the dead. On that Resurrection Sunday evening, for the first time the disciples believed that God had raised Jesus from the dead. They had already confessed Him as Lord. They passed from Old Testament salvation to New Testament salvation. Old Testament salvation looked forward through all sorts of prophecies and types and shadows to something that was yet to be done. New Testament salvation looks back to a finished work of redemption by Jesus on the cross. Thatās the dividing line.
Now, before I go furtherāwell, I canāt stop here. Letās turn to 1 John 5 for a moment. 1 John 5:4:
āFor whatever is born of God overcomes the world.ā
And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. You understand, when we receive this divine life from the resurrected Christ, itās undefeatable. Thereās nothing in the universe that can defeat us because itās the life thatās defeated Satan, sin, death, hell and the grave. You see, if born again Christians would realize what we have we would turn the world upside down. We are undefeatable.
I have five words that I use for the life of the born again Christian. It is divine life, itās Godās life. It is eternal life, not just something in time, itās eternal. Itās incorruptible life. Itās undefeatable life. And itās indestructible life. Iād like you to say those words after me and think about what you have in you if youāre a born again Christian. All right?
āDivine life. Eternal life. Incorruptible life. Undefeatable life. Indestructible life.ā
You really believe that? Then you know what you have to do? You have to say thank you. Not to me but to the Lord. Thank you, thank you, Lord. Letās take a moment or two to thank Him. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord Jesus. See, the simplest expression of faith is saying thank you. You have to express your faith somewhere or itās not real.
Now we just have a few moments longer and I want to go to the climax. I wonder how many of you would suggest what is the climax, the final end of the Christian life? Anybody. You canāt be more than wrong. How many of you believe itās going to happen? Itās wonderful to go to heaven, thatās not the end. What is the end? Thatās right, resurrection. Can we say that word? Resurrection. Letās say it again. Resurrection. See, a lot of Christians have got the idea that going to heaven is the end. Well, itās wonderful to know that youāre ready to go to heaven. Thatās marvelous but heaven is just a stage on the journey, itās not the end. The end is when the Lord Jesus comes our bodies are called forth out of the grave; spirit, soul and body are reunited and we are complete, weāre absolutely what we ought to be. Then the new creation is complete.
Letās look at the words of Paul for a moment, I want you to see in Philippians 3 Paulās goal. It was not heaven, it was resurrection. Philippians 3, weāll begin at verse 8.
āBut indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the Law, but that which is through the faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.ā
What was his goal? The resurrection from the dead. And then he goes on to say:
āNot that I have already attained, or have already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do; forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.ā
You see what his goal was? Resurrection. Thatās logical because when my body is still in the grave, the new creation is far from complete. The new creation involves spirit, soul and body. But when Jesus comes and my body is called forth out of the tomb, my spirit and soul are reunited with my body and I rise up perfect. Thatās the goal of the new creation.
Let me just read some words to you later on in Philippians 3, verses 20ā21:
āFor our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ...ā
Are you eagerly waiting for the savior?
ā...who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.ā
So when Jesus comes and we see Him, the new creation will be completed by the transformation of our body. And we will have a body like that of the Lord. You see, Paul says here the present body is a body of humiliation. Itās a judgment on us for being rebels. And no matter how much care we may take of it and how nicely we may feed it, it continually reminds us we are humiliated. It doesnāt matter what expensive food you eat; sooner or later youāre going to have take a trip to the toilet. Is that right? Thatās right. How many people are dignified there? Not many.
No matter what wonderful, beautiful clothes you wear; you walk a little bit in this hot climate and you begin to perspire or sweat. All right? All that is humiliating you, itās reminding you this isnāt the end, this is the result of Godās judgment on our sins. But when Jesus comes weāre delivered from that body of humiliation, we receive a body like His. Heās able to change even this body of ours into a body like His. Thatās the goal of the Christian life.
Now let me close by asking you just two questions, very important. First of all, have you experienced the new creation. Not have you been religious but have you experienced the new creation?
And secondly, if you have experienced the new creation, are your priorities right? Can you say like Paul, forgetting the things behind, reaching forth to the things before, I press toward the mark for the resurrection. Not as though Iāve already attained. If Paul hadnāt already attained then neither you nor I have.
I want you to consider those questions just briefly for a moment. Have you experienced the new creation? If not, you may tonight. All you have to do is come to the end of yourself, come to Jesus. Give yourself into His hands and say, āLord, make me what you want me to be.ā
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